


The panel

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Nora rlly said don’t make me turn this car around, can u tell I love making up fake sibling rivalry dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24319291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Nora is invited to speak at a panel for small business owners but Zoey and Emma’s personal drama is risking getting in the way.
Relationships: Paul Matthews/ Emma Perkins
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	The panel

Zoey had been excited about it, Emma had been excited about it, Nora had not. 

Well, the idea was exciting at first. The part of her that had worked so hard to build her own business from the ground up was thrilled to be invited to speak at a business panel, she just didn’t want to have to bring along her employees. 

She could only bring two, and of course her manager had to come along. But Emma was the only other person at her shop with at least some semblance of work ethic. Sure she snapped at customers but at least she did the work she was payed to do. 

They were being on their best behaviour, and that was not so subtly to do with the fact she had mentioned an upcoming promotion up for grabs. 

She knew Emma worried about finances out of habit sometimes, she could understand why she was so interested in a potential raise, and Zoey too was in line for it. She was great at the customer relations side of managing and she had even taken some marketing roles on herself lately with advertising, Nora had been really proud. 

But was it so hard for them to come along today because they liked their job? She hated the sort of obnoxiously sweet behaviour they were putting on, it was a lot, even for Zoey. Real tooth rotting, blessing the ground she walked on type stuff. She had even noticed Emma sending her boyfriend back to the office after two minutes of conversation tops, and Zoey had stopped taking a free drink after each shift. 

And it only took two seconds for her to regret inviting them when they stepped into her car that chilly Tuesday morning. When Emma let out a sigh underneath her breath as Zoey shuffled into the backseat besides her. 

“It’s only about forty minutes, okay?” She told them both before they even started driving. “And if we miss peak hour traffic on the way back, we’ll be home at four and you can take the rest of the day off.” 

“I don’t mind how long it takes!” Zoey chimed in. 

“Thanks, Zoey,” she responded with forced enthusiasm. The perfect employee was someone who loved their job altruistically. You did not find the perfect employee in a coffee shop. She wasn’t dumb, it was a very thinly veiled attempt. 

“If it’s busy I don’t mind staying till five,” Emma added. A bit less transparent at least, she did score a point for not trying too hard. 

“Let’s just see how it goes, okay?” She suggested instead. “Sorry to get you up so early, breakfast is on me alright? I was just going to get some drive through stuff or something.” Not that she was going to get much, she had already been up for hours and prepared what she considered to be the perfect breakfast for her. Nothing that would make her sick, not to small, not too big. It would keep her full until after the panel, and then she could eat whatever she wanted afterwards as a reward. 

“Oh, just a coffee, thanks Nora,” Emma gave a tired grin, not wanting to intrude and ruin her chances at that promotion obviously. 

“Coffee? Really Emma?” Zoey feigned shock. “I only drink Beanies. It’s the only good coffee around.” 

“I’ve literally never seen you drink anything other than a caramel frappe.”

Nora turned her eyes to the road, and she could catch Zoey giving Emma the most forced smile she could, gritting her teeth in warning. 

“Okay. So just a coffee for Emma, Zoey?” She tried to get them back on track so the conversation could end. She wanted to try and go over her speech in her head. 

“Uh. Just an orange juice is fine. Thank you Nora.” 

“Of course,” she smiled.

Making a good impression here was important, it was a lot of exposure and a lot of business connections. Hell, if she worked things out correctly they could even franchise Beanies. She had been dreaming about it all week honestly.

Zoey and Emma were pretty quiet in the back seat with their drinks up until they finished them, which Nora did not quite account for.

Maybe Emma had already had a coffee today, because she was looking quite jittery, and Zoey was full of energy now too, asking all sorts of questions about the conference that Nora was sure she had already explained. 

“I appreciate your interest Zoey but I need some time to prep myself for it, okay?” Mentally, that was. She knew her dot points back to front, it was just a matter of whether or not her excitement would get in the way, make her skip over a word or talk to fast, sometimes it even brought her slightly southern accent out if you listened closely enough. 

“Yeah, give her a second to think,” Emma snorted. Probably, it had nothing to do with being a suck up, it sounded more like she was speaking from her own personal rivalry with Zoey. 

“Emma, I was just curious,” Zoey said, trying not to snap in front of her boss, Nor knew her well enough to recognise her frustration, it came in the form of her eyes widening and her brows raising and a smile that did not reach her eyes. “I’m very excited for Nora’s speech!”

“You know you don’t get to see it right,” Emma sipped at the last few mouthfuls of coffee, staring Zoey down unblinkingly. Nora also knew Zoey enough to know that this was even more frustrating for her, that tired look Emma gave whenever they argued, the look only a girl who didn’t care about the outcomes would give. “We’re supposed to wait outside the conference hall to run the booth thing, talk with potential customers and clients.”

“Of course I know that!” Zoey snapped. “Do you think I didn’t listen when Nora told us all what was going to happen?”

“I didn’t say that,” Emma bit back, that exhausted look cracking to show off a bit more frustration underneath, annoyance, maybe. “It was a reminder.”

“I didn’t need reminding, Emma, I’m the manager, I know the plan, and Nora’s our boss and we should support her,” she pressed, raising her voice just a little at the end there as if to pique Nora’s attention like she could be listening to anything else. 

“How am I not supporting her? Im doing what I was brought here to do.” A classic Emma statement. Nothing more from her but nothing less. 

“Well there’s nothing wrong with going over the top for a job you like!” Zoey snapped, her voice lowering down to a hiss Nora could still hear. “Not like you’d know anything about that!” 

“You are such a boot kicker.” Emma bit back, no regard for her volume. 

Nora turned the radio on as a warning. 

“No, I’m just being a good employee, Emma, you literally look like you woke up half an hour ago.”

“And? I’m awake!”

“Well if you aren’t really passionate about it-“

“Shouldn’t you be on vocal rest or something?”

“Girls!” Nora smacked a hand to her wheel. Not too hard just enough to catch their attention. “Don’t make me turn this car around,” she joked with only some ill intent. “Let’s get the day out of the way before we start fighting, okay?”   
———————————————————

“What is this place?” Emma grunted, probably having preferred to explore the venue without her manager following behind. 

“I dunno. But it’s pretty dull,” Zoey only glanced up from her phone occasionally, surveying all the different booths set up around the hall. “Man, no wonder some of these business are small,” she snorted. 

“Wow, Zoey.” That was pretty harsh. She ran her hands over some sample fabrics laid out on one booth’s table as they walked. It was a small textiles shops, and she gave the owner a polite smile to make up for her manager’s comment in case they heard. 

“You know it’s your fault Nora doesn’t want us around the booth until after she goes into the conference,” Zoey put in with a roll of her eyes. “I want to charge my phone but I can’t do that if we’ve been kicked out of own booth!”

“Nora wanted to handle things herself,” Emma corrected her. “She just wanted time alone at the booth to think because you were singing along to the radio the whole way there.”

“I see no difference between listening to the radio and listening to me sing. It’s because you kept scoffing in the back seat!” Zoey shook her head. “There aren’t even any chairs to sit in,” she sighed. “I’m gonna go hang out in the cloak room.” 

“Why, does that make you feel kinda VIP?” Emma asked as Zoey began veering her own way. “It reminds me more like how I’d go hide in my room when my aunt came over. Ugh.” 

“God, you’re just doing that to be obnoxious, you know that?” Zoey sneered, tipping her nose up like she was better than Emma all of a sudden. “Anyways. I’ve got a plan.”

“A plan for what?” Emma asked, but Zoey had already left her side. 

Uh oh. Emma certainly didn’t feel good about that. She wanted this raise, and she knew Nora didn’t want anyone sucking up for it like Zoey was, she was going to earn it honourably- but if Zoey was going to cheat then she was going to stop playing fair. 

She turned on her heels to stalk after Zoey, staying to the crowds to ensure Zoey couldn’t pick her out if she decided to turn around. 

She was moving quickly, with a peppy stride in her step like she truly had the perfect idea, and Emma wouldn’t allow that. She swerved into a different row of booths, catching sight of her manager each time the rows ended before they begun again, and god she was walking with a purpose. What was she up to?

On her detour though, she passed right by their own booth. Nora was engaged in conversation, very passionately spilling over some topic with the person who had stopped by, the widest grin on her face and a smile so wide she almost couldn’t quite keep her eyes open. Emma was so busy staring that she almost bumped into the wall of the next booth and had to jump aside so she wouldn’t crash. 

She hadn’t seen that side of her boss before. She knew she was pretty proud of starting her own business, but wow. That was the way Paul looked when he was telling her about a new movie he watched - or more often, a movie he had already seen a dozen times over. 

But no time to get stuck on that, she had just lost Zoey’s trail and picked up her pace, ignoring the burning feeling she got in her bad leg whenever she ran. 

She pushed open the door to the cloak room, hunting Zoey down. She was by the locker they were sharing today, rustling through one of their bags.

“What are you doing?” She stopped her manager in her tracks, she spun around to face Emma, something grasped in her hand. 

“Mind your own business, Emma. Now can you get out of here? Nora’s going to the panel soon, maybe you should go take over the booth,” she glared. There was no point in hiding the fact she was up to something. 

“What do you have?” She asked, pointing at her hands which were clasped to her chest. 

“Listen, you know that promotion talk was just to keep us on our best behaviour. She isn’t handing that out today,” she began, caution in her voice as she began to explain. “But I’m gonna show Nora that I deserve it.” 

Emma hated that because she knew her boss was slightly partial to her manager. “Okay. What are you scheming?” One thing Emma hated about this brand of theatre kids was that everything had to be a story - Zoey had to go take matters into her own hand instead of just being a good employee and earning it a normal way. 

“Why would I tell you? Then you’ll just snitch,” Zoey slammed the locker door shut. 

“Where you in my bag?” Emma patted down her pockets to ensure she still had all her valuables on her. “What were you doing in the lockers?”

“Nothing!” Zoey assured her, trying to step past her. 

“No,” Emma held out a hand to stop her, barring her exit. “Show me what you have!” She reached for Zoey’s hands and Zoey turned her shoulder to get her off, shoving something into her jacket pockets, but not slyly enough. 

“Are those Nora’s cards?” Emma dropped her hand to her side, feeling her skin turn cold. “For the panel?” 

Zoey’s cheeks grew red but she shoved her hand into her pocket so Emma couldn’t test that theory with a bit of pickpocketing. 

“Are you taking her cards, man?” She repeated. 

“Look!” Zoey began. “If she doesn’t have them she’s gonna get me to help, and then I’ll show I’m a good worker!” 

“By stealing!?” That would get Emma fires so quickly. “Are you kidding me? Put those back before I tell Nora!”

“You’re just jealous because you know it would work.”

Well no, it wasn’t that. “Look, man. Don’t-“ she paused. If she did snitch, that probably would get her a shoe-in for a promotion. “Don’t mess this up for her.”

“It won’t mess her up!” She insisted. “She knows exactly what she’s going to say, she just wants these with her so she doesn’t panic!” 

“Yeah but-“ it made Emma shift her weight back and forth between her feet, steeling her breath. “Why would you want to make her panic when she’s so excited?” 

Maybe the lack of fight in her voice made Zoey stop to think. “It wouldn’t ruin it,” she tried again, a bit more pathetically this time like she was just trying to get herself off the hook now. Her brows creased and one hand emerged from her pocket. “If I put these back you’re just going to do the same thing.”

Emma held her hands up in defence. “Zoey, this isn’t about us, it’s about Nora, okay?” She frowned. God. And she wanted that promotion, too. “I’ll keep my mouth shut, swear.” 

Zoey didn’t quite give in, she released the cards from her pocket at least, holding them to her chest like they were the key, and giving them up now would relinquish her place in her imaginary competition. 

“You know how much she wanted this,” Emma prodded. “And look, she chose us to come today because we’re the two in line for it,” she continued. “And I think we both know who it’s going to anyways,” she let out a heavy sigh. She knew Zoey could do very little wrong in Nora’s eyes, she was manager after all. Emma liked the idea of a raise of course, that extra bit of financial room, but it was all just a fantasy.   
No way did she deserve a raise after the amount of drinks she had messed up that week anyways, on top of all her other regular mistakes. 

Zoey’s shoulders fell. “Hey, me?” She shook her head. “Well, you’re a good worker too you know. You can’t be that awful if you’re-“ she snorted, cutting herself off with a half-grin at her words. “Second place.” 

“Yeah, hah. Second place definitely beats fifth.”

“Plus. I’m way happier Nora invited you today instead of Hayley, because she just auditioned for the role that she knew I was going for, and she wouldn’t back down.”

“Ugh. Fuck Hayley, man,” she laughed. It was a bit rougher than Zoey’s, but at least they were both sort of smiling now. She didn’t say it, but her eyes flicked down to the cards to remind Zoey to put them away. “Nora‘s gonna start soon, y’know.” 

And just on cue, the woman herself entered, mumbling her own prepared lines to herself as she made her way to the locker. She glanced up in surprise when she saw them, composing herself in seconds. “Shouldn’t one of you be minding the booth right now?” 

She elbowed Zoey and Zoey outstretched a hand to hand over Nora’s cards. 

“Thanks?” She took them up, tucking them into her pocket. “What were you doing with those?” 

Zoey didn’t answer, maybe already a little too shocked from Emma’s scolding, so Emma spoke up instead. “She was getting her portable charger, she was just gonna deliver them to you while she was at it.” That wasn’t the cleanest excuse, even Nora was still staring at them both. 

“Yeah, my phone is kinda out of charge,” Zoey reached for it in her other pocket, proffering it forward like Nora needed to confirm this, Emma batted Zoey’s hand back because they both knew Zoey’s phone was in fact not out of charge at all, and they couldn’t give it away like that. 

“Oh,” Nora blinked. “Why don’t you go watch the booth then? It’ll give you something to do. Emma, do you want to come to the panel with me?” 

She flushed, biting her lip. “Uh-“ she glanced at Zoey, but Zoey just nodded, giving her a small smile. 

“Yeah, I’ll watch the booth,” she confirmed. “Good luck, Nora.” 

“Thanks, Zoey. I’ll meet you there okay Emma? Get yourself a good seat,” she joked before rushing off to go get set up. 

“Wow,” Zoey clutched a hand to her heart, swallowing hard. “That was sort of close?” Maybe? “She’s off in a hurry,” she commented, because there was nothing else to really say.

“Yeah. She’s pretty excited,” Emma nodded, glancing up at Zoey. “Truce? Just until this is over?” 

“Yeah. Truce.” 

———————————————————

Zoey and Emma were at her side from the moment Nora returned from the panel, ambushing her with questions of their own about how she felt and how it went and if she’d ever do it again. 

And there was a lot racing through her mind by the time they were back in the car, but the short answer? It was good, great even. She was reasonable with her expectations and she didn’t set the bar too high but not too low either. It was what she expected. A few business cards had been exchanged, a few email addresses, a few words of advice. 

People asked her questions and he gave them the right answers. It was just like being back in her business and management course, just less scary. 

“There was an investor,” she finally brought it up on the car ride back once she had collected her thoughts. 

They were much quieter in the car now . It was that sort of exhaustion where her mind felt so awake but her body was so tired. Her feet hurt from walking around carrying her bag all day, but she felt she could’ve stayed there for so much longer. 

The two girls in the back seat perked up curiously from their half-sleep, even Emma sat herself up a bit more.

“Huh?” Zoey asked her to repeat it. 

“Yeah, he took one of my business cards. He seemed pretty interested,” she nodded, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “Yeah,” she repeated just to solidify that fact. 

“Oh!” They both chimed in. 

“That’s great, Nora,” Emma smiled.

“I’m really glad!” Zoey added, both of their interests staying piqued for a second longer, but Nora didn’t have much else to say. 

It was nice - it didn’t feel like more of that fake interest stuff from this morning, none of that sucking up stuff either. It was like they were genuinely excited about it, maybe genuinely excited for her? 

“Thanks for coming along today, girls,” she broke the silence again. 

“Hey, no problem,” Emma snorted. “It was pretty fun.” 

“Mm. Except for that one guy who came to the booth at the start because he thought we were like,” she couldn’t think of the word.

“Like the actual catering?” Emma finished for her, giving her a playful elbow. 

“Yeah!” They both laughed, but the conversation didn’t travel much further as they both giggled out the last remains of their energy and Emma closed her eyes again with a purr, leaning her head on her seatbelt. 

“I’ll drop you girls home,” she offered. She didn’t want Emma walking home when her bad leg must be acting up, and she didn’t want Zoey getting on a bus this late either lest that scumbag cop tried to offer her a ride home again. 

“Thank you Nora,” Emma gave out a sleepy grin and even Zoey took her headphones out again, keeping them out a moment longer in case Nora had more to say. 

“That’s really kind of you,” she added. 

Nora smiled as she sank into her seat, eyes set back on the road as they made their way back over the Nantucket bridge. 

Now that this was all out of the way, she had no problems with them being as sickly sweet as they liked.


End file.
